The present invention relates to constructs for bowling lanes which allow for a precise construction while providing a lane surface that is resistant to wear and easy to maintain.
There are several types of synthetic bowling lanes on the market today, many of which evolved from techniques developed by General Electric Company. Some of these techniques use a 11/8-inch thick phenolic impregnated plastic laminate sheet having a decorative panel, with the surface of the sheet appearing as a wooden bowling lane. The laminated sheet is attached with contact cement to the surface of the old lane and becomes the bowling surface.
A main drawback to this technique is that the laminate sheet often does not adhere properly to an underlying wood lane. In addition, the wood lane often moves, causing the sheet on top to crack or separate.
In dealing with this problem, it is known to attach a thick phenolic panel to the underlying wood lane with screws in the ball drop area within the first four to five feet of the approach area. The laminate sheet is then placed on top of the thick phenolic panel. A particle board having the same thickness as the phenolic panel is placed on the balance of the lane, and is also screwed down to the wood lane. A printed plastic sheet is then placed on the top of the thick panel and sheet.
This technique is very expensive and requires numerous manufacturing steps. Another drawback is that when oil is placed on the lane, the oil often seeps between the panels and contaminates the particle board, making the joints swell. Moisture also seeps into the joints and contacts the particle board, causing the lanes to swell beyond acceptable American Bowling Congress tolerances. Further, a jacking effect is occasionally created where one surface of the approach panel actually rides up onto a lane panel, resulting in the edges along the seam of the panels being uneven. If one panel becomes higher than the other, a hazard to bowlers may result.
Another drawback to the aforementioned techniques is that when a solid phenolic is used as a lane surface, that portion of the lane using the phenolic is not totally free from warpage. This warpage is due to moisture and other different characteristics of the materials that result in bending or twisting at the joints. Again, these problems may become so severe that the joints exceed the tolerances of the American Bowling Congress over the entire surface of the lane. This problem is further compounded when panels of different materials are abutted against each other.
Many of the existing bowling lanes are constructed with 48-inch wood paneling in the approach area and 42-inch wood paneling in the lane area, with a foul line extending across the lane to separate the approach and lane areas. One such foul line includes a flat fiber material that extends downwardly along the surface of the lane. This foul line is typically glued or fastened onto the side surface of the foul lane and the approach area. When a bowling ball is successively dropped on the lane adjacent the foul line, a small groove may form in the lane. Over time, the groove may become larger requiring that the lane be repaired or replaced. Further, the location of the wood panels abutting the foul line tend to shimmy, also necessitating repair of the lane.
Synthetic lanes such as phenolic tend to be less susceptible to shimmying, however, synthetic lanes may be more expensive than natural wood. Further, current techniques for replacing old wood lanes with synthetic lanes require that the old approach area be replaced. When the player bowls on a synthetic approach panel, the feel to the player as a result of sliding on a synthetic panel may be different from the feel to the players than sliding on a wood approach panel. The feel of sliding on the wood approach panel is preferred.
When a synthetic lane is constructed, it is attached to a subsurface using screws. Once attached, a removable synthetic flat top dowel is placed snugly in a circular aperture that partially extends into the surface of the lane panel over the top of the screw to provide a smooth bowling surface. However, due to excessive vibrations that can occur when a bowling ball hits the lane, the dowels have a tendency to loosen and pop up, requiring that the lane be periodically serviced to push the dowels back in place.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,318, there is disclosed a bowling lane construction utilizing dowels of a material which is the same as that of the synthetic panel. Other prior art of interest includes the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,795,152 and 4,944,514 to Suiter; 4,205,842, 4,205,843 and 4,244,570 to Murray; 3,014,722 to Green; 2,531,168 to Snyder; 3,670,049 to Stein et al; 4,801,143, 4,269,411, 4,354,678, 4,169,602 and 4,421,309, all to Heddon.